Hurricane Ian ‘ends discussion’ on climate crisis, Biden says on Florida visit - The Guardian US

Joe Biden has urged action to tackle the climate crisis after surveying by helicopter the devastation wrought in Florida by Hurricane Ian, one of the fiercest storms in American history.

Visiting Fort Myers, which bore the brunt of the damage, the US president shook hands and ostensibly put up a united front with Ron DeSantis, the rightwing Florida governor touted as a potential challenger in the 2024 election.

But Biden did make a pointed comment about climate change’s impact on America that drew a contrast with DeSantis, who has previously avoided the term and dismissed such concerns as “leftwing stuff”.

“There’s a lot going on, and I think the one thing this has finally ended is a discussion about whether or not there’s climate change, and [that] we should do something about it.”.

At least 84 people are confirmed dead, although the unofficial death toll is over 100 and still rising, and nearly 400,000 homes and businesses remain without power in Florida after the hurricane crashed across the state with 150mph (240km/h) winds and a punishing storm surge.

You got to start from scratch and move again and it’s going to take a lot of time, not weeks or months, it’s going to take years for everything to get squared away in the state of Florida to fully recover and rebuild.”.

The spirit of the people of this state and southwest Florida has been phenomenal.”.

DeSantis duly struck a temporary truce with Biden despite them being at loggerheads on numerous issues, including the climate crisis, which experts blame for Florida’s increasingly intense hurricanes.

Biden oversaw passage of a landmark $430bn climate action bill, the biggest in history, whereas DeSantis, while backing funding to harden Florida’s defences against flooding, opposed some previous disaster-relief aid and pushed pension funds not to consider environmental impact when they invest.